Ellen Mandinach, Ph.D., today joins EDC's Center for Children and Technology in the newly created position of Associate Director for Research.

Dr. Mandinach brings a strong background in research methodologies and has done extensive work in the field of educational technology. Most recently she served as senior research scientist in the Center for Higher Education at Educational Testing Service, where she was head of the Teaching, Learning, and Instruction group.

Dr. Mandinach's research has focused on the implementation and impact of computer environments on learning and the measurement of individual differences in cognitive and affective processes. Her dissertation, "The Role of Strategic Planning and Self-Regulation in Learning an Intellectual Computer Game," examined the effects of using computer software as an instructional medium. Her work at ETS focused on the effects of instructional media on individual differences in cognitive processing, as well as the impact of technology-based learning environments on teaching, learning, and classroom dynamics. She directed the Systems Thinking and Curriculum Innovation Project under the auspices of the Educational Technology Center, Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Topography of Mastery Assessment Project.

Dr. Mandinach wrote a book on the cognitive and curricular impact of the systems thinking approach on teaching and learning activities, titled Classroom Dynamics, and wrote a set of invited syntheses from a NATO Summer Institute on the integration of computer and instructional science. She was also part of a team which wrote, Remaking the Concept of Aptitude: Extending the Legacy of Richard E. Snow. She was given the ETS Scientist Award for 1991-1992, which was used to examine computer applications in Europe and Israel. Her most recent activities have been to conduct research to inform ETS about issues concerning the assessment of test takers with disabilities, with an emphasis on examining the impact of accommodations, flagging, and extended time on admissions and test performance. She also has been working in the area of e-learning, about which she produced, "e-Learning: Practices and Possibilities and The Development of Effective Evaluation Methods for e-Learning: A Concept Paper and Action Plan," and worked on the ICT Literacy Project, about which she produced "Digital Transformation: A Framework for ICT Literacy."

Dr. Mandinach received her Ph.D. in educational psychology from Stanford University in 1984. She joined ETS in 1985 following postdoctoral work at the University of California, at Berkeley, and the Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development, in San Francisco.